Method and system for distributing data to mobile devices

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the invention are concerned with a method and a system for distributing mobile applications, in particular to aspects of receiving, processing and displaying advertisements on mobile terminals. In one aspect, embodiments provide a software component for controlling movement for an advertisement image on a mobile terminal, the mobile terminal comprising a display area and a processor, the software component comprising processable instructions defining movement of the advertisement image relative to the display area, wherein the instructions are wirelessly transmissible to the mobile terminal and the processor is arranged to process said instructions in order to move the advertisement image.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/156,335filed May 30, 2008, which is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/571,709 filed Mar. 2, 2007, which is an application under 37USC 371 of International Application No. PCT/GB2004/003890 filed Sep.13, 2004, which in turn claims priority of British Patent ApplicationNo. 0321337.8 filed Sep. 11, 2003.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a method and a system for distributing mobileapplications and is suitable particularly, but not exclusively forreceiving, processing and displaying advertisements on mobile terminals.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Currently the Short Message Service (SMS) is the medium of choice forpersonal messaging. In addition to personal messaging, several companieshave designed systems that are intended to include advertisementinformation in SMS messages. For example, International patentapplication WO 03/015430 describes a service whereby advertisement data(including length of advertisement (number of characters), a preview ofthe advertisement and an identifier associated with the advertisementprovided by external sources) are stored on mobile terminal in a “local”store, and the user selects an advert, from the store, to accompany anoutgoing message. The terminal then calculates a length available fortext, and the sender is allowed to enter a message having a length up tothe calculated length. An outgoing message is then created, comprisingthe advertisement ID associated with the selected advertisement and theuser's message text, and having a header indicating that the message hasadvertising content. The outgoing message is then sent from the terminaland received by the SMSC, which checks the header of the message; anymessage having an identifier corresponding to the advertisement type ispassed to an “ad server” The ad server processes the message,effectively selecting an advertisement from a store, creating one ormore messages that comprise the selected advertisement and creating anSMS message that can be read by the recipient's mobile phone terminal.

Despite the popularity of SMS messaging, wireless has not yet made itsmark as an advertising medium. This is partly because each SMS messageis limited to 160 characters, and these characters can only be selectedfrom the ASCII set, which makes it difficult to include meaningful andcatchy product information in the messages. As a result the ad serverquite often creates a plurality of messages, which means that either thereceiving terminal has to be equipped with some software thatconcatenates the messages together in some elegant manner (sincepresentation is very important with advertising), or the receivingterminal simply displays the messages separately, as is the case withnon-modified SMS messages exceeding 160 characters in length. Since thesuccess of the advertising industry is heavily reliant on the impressioncreated by advertisements, and since SMS messages can only provide anextremely restricted visual impact, this means that, as an advertisingmedium, the SMS communication service is rather limited.

International patent application PCT/AU00/01296, published as WO0131497describes delivering advertisement data wirelessly as video data. In onearrangement video data streams are unicast or multicast to individualsubscribers, the subscribers having a corresponding player or decoder ontheir terminal for decoding and displaying the received streams. Thesevideo streams are described as e.g. live news, video-on-demand (VOD)provider etc., and the video advertising can include multiple videoobjects, which can be sourced separately. In one arrangement, a videoadvertisement object can be dynamically inserted into a video streambeing delivered to the decoder, the nature of this insertion beingcontrolled by control data embedded in the advert object. Alternativelyan interactive video file can be downloaded, rather than streamed, to adevice so that it can be viewed offline or online at any time. Adownloaded video file has all of the interaction and dynamic mediacomposition capabilities that are provided by the online streamingprocess and includes menus, advertising objects, and forms that registeruser selections and feedback. Whilst this is creates a significantlyimproved impression, from the point of view of perception of a productor service, video files (object or streamed data) require a significantamount of bandwidth and often taken an unacceptable amount of time todownload to a mobile device.

An object of the present invention is to provide a convenient method ofpresenting information to a user of a mobile terminal.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Aspects of the present invention are set out in the appended claims.

Features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from thefollowing description of preferred embodiments of the invention, givenby way of example only, which is made with reference to the accompanyingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a mobile network arranged inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing components of, and arranged to executeon, the terminal T1 shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of a message presentation settingspecified by one of the components shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 a is a flow diagram showing steps involved in an aspect of theinvention concerning embedding advertisement data into applicationsrunning on the terminal shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 b is a flow diagram showing further steps involved in an aspectof the invention concerning applications running on the terminal shownin FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram showing steps involved in an aspect of theinvention concerned with displaying advertisements distributed to amobile terminal via the mobile network shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention are concerned with distribution ofadvertisement data to mobile devices and interactive features of thedistributed advertisement data. The invention has several aspects,including the way in which advertisement data is formatted; interactivecontent of advertisement data; embedding of advertisement data inapplications such as games and the like; peer-to-peer distribution ofadvertisements and of applications arranged to display and run suchadvertisement data; and selection of message settings utilizingadvertisement data. Details of these aspects will be described in detaillater in the description, but first a description of the infrastructureneeded to support the aspects will be presented.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a data system 1 within which embodiments ofthe invention operate. In FIG. 1, the blocks indicate components of thedata system 1. In the arrangement shown in FIG. 1, a terminal T1communicates with various network devices within the data system 1. Theterminal T1 may be a wireless terminal such as a mobile phone, a PDA ora Laptop computer that is configured to run an advertisement application10 according to the invention, as will be described in more detailbelow.

The data system 1 comprises: a WAP gateway G1, which is typically anetwork operator's WAP gateway configured to send and receive signalsover Bluetooth or GPRS; an advertisement services server S1, with whichthe advertisement application 10 communicates via the WAP gateway G1; anMMSC store and forward network node 11, which is managed by the networkoperator and arranged to control transmission of MMS messages betweensenders and recipients; Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) radio andswitching network infrastructure components identified as Base StationBSS 13 and MSC 15, together with an SMS store and forward network node17 and gateway G2 which enables SMS messages to be transmitted from themobile network PLMN to the server S1; and a database DB1, arranged toreceive and store, from the advertisement services server S1, contentdata together with data in respect of subscribers and in respect ofterminals such as T1. The data system 1 can also include network devicesrequired to support communication via the GPRS communication service;for example, the data system 1 may include a Gateway GPRS Support Node(not shown), which is adapted to provide an interface between a GPRSnetwork and external data networks (such as the Internet or privatenetworks) receiving data packets from mobile devices, and forwardingthem, in a known manner, through external networks.

The advertisement services server S1 is arranged to store and downloadcontent data such as news, sport and images, which have been sourcedfrom third party content providers shown as S2, S3, S4 via Network N1,and application data such as object files, executable files and scriptfiles. The content and application data may be, or include,advertisement data, as will be described in more detail below, and istypically sent to the server S1 over a TCP/IP link. In addition toreceiving IP packets from servers S2, S3 and S4, the server S1 isconfigured to deploy data and WAP applications to mobile terminals suchas T1 over a Bluetooth link. Accordingly the WAP services server S1 canbe accessed by the terminal T1, either directly by the advertisementapplication 10 or in response to input from the user of terminal T1. Inaddition, the server S1 is arranged to receive and store (in databaseDB1) demographic information relating to subscribers of the dataservice, which can be used in selection of appropriate content andapplication data.

Aspects of the advertisement application 10 will now be described inmore detail. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of anadvertisement application 10 according to the invention. The application10 can be distributed to terminal T1 using peer-to-peer methods (i.e.from other terminals) or downloaded from the server S1, via Bluetooth orGPRS communication services, or stored on a memory card associated withthe terminal T1 or on the SIM card associated with the terminal T1. Theadvertisement application 10 is preferably a native application, i.e.written in a low level computer language that is compiled to rundirectly by the CPU of terminal T1 (e.g. C or C++), or a Java™application, in which case the terminal T1 also includes a Java virtualmachine (JVM)/Java runtime arrangement capable of running theadvertisement application 10 as an application-level softwareenvironment.

In one embodiment, the advertisement application 10 includes aninitialization process, which, when the advertisement application 10 isinvoked for the first time, requests certain demographic informationfrom the subscriber. For example, the initialization process can displaya form having several fields therein such as identity, age, sex,interests etc., which the subscriber has to complete for the applicationto become fully operational. Once the user has entered data into thesefields, the initialization process inserts the data into one or moremessages. The messages can be embodied as SMS messages, in which casethey are transported to the server S1 via BSS 13, MSC 15, SMSC 17 andG2, or as WAP packets and transported to the server S1 via G1 using WAPover Bluetooth (or GPRS). In response, and provided the data sentcomprises sufficient information, the server S1 transmits an unlockingcode, which automatically unlocks the application 10, making it fullyoperational.

The advertisement application 10 comprises an update engine 201 and aprocessing engine 203, the update engine 201 being arranged to send dataindicative of subscriber settings and advertisement selection to theserver S1. Preferably the update engine 201 communicates with the serverS1 periodically (e.g. daily), uploading the subscriber's settings andadvertisement selections for the forthcoming period. The processingengine 203 is arranged to process application data such as games, andcontent data such as images, news and sports, which have been receivedfrom the server S1 (or from other remote services). In addition, theprocessing engine 203 is arranged to process advertisement data, which,in one embodiment are sent as SMS or MMS messages, but couldalternatively be sent as data packets via GPRS or Bluetooth.

The update engine 201 is arranged to display various messagepresentation settings to the subscriber, which can be modified to enablethe user to select his preferred settings. Presentation settings thatcan be modified include a frame around messages, font of messages, andorientation and positioning of text and graphics and the like within andaround the message, and an example is shown in FIG. 3. Once thesubscriber has entered his preferred settings, the update engine 201transmits a file including the settings information to the server S1,which stores the settings in the database DB1, for use in modifyingmessages subsequently sent by the user (as will be described in moredetail below).

The processing engine 203 is configured to request and receive contentdata, advertisement data, executable files and/or object files from theserver S1 (or other remote servers), and to process the received dataand files. In the case of content data (e.g. news and sports), theprocessing engine 203 is arranged to display the content, embeddingadvertisement data therein. The advertisement data could, for example,be inserted between news stories, whenever certain keywords appear, inaccordance with predetermined settings that accompany the content data,or at random. The advertisement data are preferably sent with thecontent data, and include an identifier (herein referred to asadvertisement ID) which identifies the subject matter of the advert.Advertisements, and hence the subject matter thereof, are preferablyselected by the server S1 in accordance with the type of content dataand the subscriber's settings.

In the case of executable files and/or object files, these aredownloaded to the terminal T1 and invoked by the processing engine 203.The files can be downloaded on demand, or in accordance with previouslyspecified conditions, in which case the advertisement application 10 mayinclude a socket connection arranged to listen for data and, in responseto receipt thereof, to pass the received data onto the processing engine203. The executable files can include games, more specifically trialgames, which include real-time calls for visualization of data; in onearrangement and in use, the games include real-time calls between levelsof the game.

Aspects of the invention that relate to processing and servingvisualization requests will now be described with reference to FIG. 4 a.The processing engine 203 receives a visualization request from theexecutable process, the request having been invoked either in responseto a command issued by the processing engine 203 or autonomouslygenerated by the executable process itself (step 400). Having sent thevisualization request, operation of at least part of the executableprocess is paused, and control is handed over to the processing engine203. In response to receipt of the visualization request, the processingengine 203 identifies (step 401) whether the call specifies that datashould be retrieved from a remote source. If the request specifies aremote source, the processing system 203 sends (step 403) a request toserver S1, preferably via the WAP gateway G1, for advertisement data.The request may include certain parameters, such as type of processetc., and the server S1 responds by selecting (step 405) anadvertisement in accordance with the settings of the subscriber(retrievable from the database DB1) and those parameters (if any)included in the request. The selected advertisement is then transmitted(step 407) to the terminal T1, and upon receipt thereof the processingengine 203 displays the advertisement (step 409). Having displayed theadvertisement the processing engine 203 sends an instruction to theexecutable process (step 411), causing it to resume whichever processingstep was paused at step 400. Resuming processing when the executableprocess is a game might, for example, involve moving onto the next levelin the game.

Alternatively the processing engine 203 could select one of theadvertisements that has previously been transmitted to, and hence storedon, the terminal T1; for example, if the subscriber has recentlyreceived news data (and advertisement data with the news data), theprocessing system 203 could review (step 411), by means of advertisementID associated with advertisement data, those advertisements alreadystored on the terminal T1, with a view to identifying (step 413) anadvertisement that matches the subscriber preferences and/or indeed thetype of executable process. Of course, in the event that none of thelocal advertisements is relevant to the preferences, the processingengine 203 can retrieve advertisements from the remote store, followingsteps 403, 405, 407. As a further alternative, and when the executableprocess is a game, when the processing engine 203 first invokes thetrial game, it can, firstly, identify types of advertisements that areto be displayed between levels, The processing engine 203 then sends arequest to the server S1, as per step 403, but in this variant therequest is for all of the advertisements that could be displayed at anypoint in the game (e.g. various levels). The server selects (as per step405) relevant advertisements and transmits them (as per step 407) to theterminal T1. Then, when the trial game makes a call for an advertisementto be displayed, the processing engine 203 can select one of the advertsthat was transmitted at step 407 on the basis of the subject matter andlevel of the game and the subject matter of an advertisement (asidentifiable from the associated advertisement ID) in addition, or as analternative, to the user's preferences. An advantage of this variant isthat selection of relevant advertisement data will incur minimum timedelay; for cases where the executable process is a game this embodimentwill present a minimal interruption to operation of the trial game.

For the case where the executable process is a game, and referring toFIG. 4 b, the game can include a “select game” function, which, ifinvoked (step 421), causes the processing engine 203 to halt the trialgame (step 423) and retrieve (step 425) the standard version of the game(i.e. without adverts). Alternatively, the game could comprise anexecutable portion that, during execution of the trial game, is locked.In this variant step 425 could involve retrieving an unlocking code.Once the unlocking code has been received the processing engine 203could apply the received unlocking code to the game, thereby allowingthe user full access thereto.

Step 425 may additionally include performing certain transaction-relatedsteps, such as requesting payment details from the subscriber, which, ifentered, are preferably encapsulated within SMS messages and forwardedto the advertiser, via server BSS 13, MSC 15, SMSC 17, G2 andadvertisement services server S1. In the event that the advertisementdata selected at step 405 (or 413) are related to the game, they couldinclude data which, when visualized, comprise selectable items that areconfigured to enable the user to select different versions of the game.

In some cases the advertisement data include an image file and a scriptfile, the script file including control instructions for controlling howan image is to be displayed. In one arrangement the control instructionsinclude movement instructions, specifically panning instructionscontrolling how an image moves across or around the display, and therate at which the image is to be moved across the display. An example ofa script file that controls movement of a football bouncing across thescreen is set out below (image files here are“whitescreen.jpg”,“anim_nike_logo.jpg”,“anim_nike_football.jpg”):

   NAME  NIKE // 4 letter ID #include “m1anim.rh” RESOURCE ANIMATION { ad_duration_milliseconds = 4000;  campaign_name = “Nike”; advertisement_name = “Nike Football”;  image_files = {“whitescreen.jpg”, “anim_nike_logo.jpg”, “anim_nike_football.jpg” }; effects = { IMAGE_EFFECT { image_file_no = 2; on_off_points = { 200,2500 }; top_left = { CP_2_LONG {type = 2; time = 200; x = −55; y = 0; },CP_2_LONG {type = 2; time = 800; x = 121; y = 0; }, CP_2_LONG {type = 2;time = 1400; x = 0; y = 154; }, CP_2_LONG {type = 2; time = 1800; x =121; y = 154; }, CP_2_LONG { type = 2; time = 2200; x = 60; y = 77; } };size = { CP_2_LONG { x = 55; y = 54; } }; source_pos = { CP_2_LONG { x =0; y = 0; } };   }, IMAGE_EFFECT { image_file_no = 1; on_off_points = {2000 }; top_left = { CP_2_LONG { time = 2200; x = 11; y = 208; },CP_2_LONG { time = 2700; x = 11; y = 170; } }; size = { CP_2_LONG { x =153; y = 28; } }; source_pos = { CP_2_LONG { x = 0; y = 0; } };   },IMAGE_EFFECT { image_file_no = 0; on_off_points = { 0, 4000 }; top_left= { CP_2_LONG { type = 0; time = 0; x = 0; y = 0; }, CP_2_LONG { type =0; time = 200; x = 176; y = 0; }, CP_2_LONG { type = 0; time = 3500; x =0; y = 0;} }; size = { CP_2_LONG { x = 176; y = 212; } }; source_pos = {CP_2_LONG { x = 0; y = 0; } };   }, FADE_EFFECT { fade_no = 0;on_off_points = { 0, 200 }; fade_data = { CP_2_LONG { time = 0; x = 255;y = 0; }, CP_2_LONG { time = 200; x = 0; y = 0; }, CP_2_LONG { time =201; x = 255; y = 0; } };   }, FADE_EFFECT { fade_no = 1; on_off_points= { 3000, 4000 }; fade_data = {   CP_2_LONG { time = 3000; x = 255; y =0; }, CP_2_LONG { time = 3500; x = 0; y = 0; }, CP_2_LONG { time = 4000;x = 255; y = 0; } };   }  }; }

Known systems, such as that described in international patentpublication number WO01031497, include means for sending advertisementsthat move dynamically across the screen; however, these moving imagesare embodied as compressed video files, which occupy a considerableamount of bandwidth. An advantage of this aspect of the invention isthat, since the moving images are embodied as a combination of an imagefile and a script file, they occupy far less bandwidth.

Preferably the advertisement image file includes a selectable portion(such as a drop down menu or a button), which, when selected, displaysone or more options. These options can include “forwarding” theadvertisement to another subscriber, which causes the processing engine403 to create an MMS message comprising the advertisement data;displaying another page with more information based on the alreadydownloaded script and image file contents; accessing the web site of thecompany associated with the advertisement; and/or sending a request forfurther information to the company associated with the advertisement. Ifthe latter option is selected, the request is sent to the advertiser(via server S1), which selects data in accordance with the request andinserts the selected data into a standard mobile phone form,transmitting the form to the terminal T1 as an encoded SMS message or asa WAP data packet (via Bluetooth or GPRS).

Referring now to FIG. 5, in a further aspect, the processing engine 203could be arranged to invoke advertisement data whenever a user performscertain actions. Such actions include creating a new message, receivingand reading a message, accessing a web site, requesting data etc. Thisaspect will now be described for the example of creating a message; atstep 501, in response to the subscriber creating a new message using amessaging application running on the mobile terminal, the processingengine 203 interrupts the messaging application and selectsadvertisement data, e.g. based on the time of day and/or the location ofthe subscriber, and displays the selected advertisement on the terminal(step 503). To facilitate this aspect of the invention the advertisementapplication 10 ensures that a minimum amount of advertisement data isstored on the terminal T1 at all times and refreshes the dataperiodically (typically every day, but the timescales could be eithershorter or longer depending on the type of advertisement).

In some arrangements the advertisement application 10 can be configuredso that the subscriber can only continue with his intended action if heinteracts with the terminal T1 within a particular time period. Thistime period overlaps with the time during which advertisement data aredisplayed. When the advertisement data relate to a moving image, thisaspect of the invention is particularly useful, since, in the event thatthe subscriber fails to interact with the terminal within the timeperiod the application 10 can simply play the advertisement again. Thevisualization step 503 is repeated until the subscriber successfullyinteracts with the terminal within the time period (steps 505, 507),following which the messaging application running on the mobile terminalis enabled, by the processing engine 203, to resume processing onceagain.

From the point of view of advertising, an advantage of this aspect ofthe invention is that subscribers are forced to pay attention to theadvertisement data if they wish to interact with their terminal T1.However, in order to minimize inconvenience to the user the time periodwithin which user input is monitored should be reasonably short; forexample, if the advertisement data are displayed once every 5 seconds,the time period could last for 3 seconds and occur within the middle ofthe advertisement.

As described above, the update engine 201 is arranged to send messagepresentation settings to the server S1. These presentation settings aresubsequently used by the server S1 during a message modificationprocess, whereby SMS, MMS or email messages, which are sent from onesubscriber to another subscriber, are modified to include advertisementdata. In addition to appending advertisement data to messages, themessage modification process involves using the presentation settings tomodify the way in which messages are presented on a screen, effectivelycustomizing both the content and the presentation of messages. Foroutgoing MMS messages to be modified in this manner, outgoing messageshave to be routed to the server S1 in the first instance. Once receivedby the server S1, the server S1 modifies messages—e.g. by selecting andappending an advertisement to the message in accordance with subscriberdata stored in the database DB1, and/or by modifying the presentation ofthe message in accordance with the settings data transmitted by updateengine 201. In the event that the settings data include data specifyingpreferred types of advertisements, selection of an advertisement isadditionally dependent on these preferences. A notable feature of thisaspect of the invention is that message settings and advertisementpreferences are not transmitted together with the message, but aretransmitted separately, by the update engine 201, as described above. Anadvantage of this aspect of the invention is that, for a given timeperiod, advertisement preferences only have to be sent once rather thaneach time a message is created. It should be noted that those MMSmessages that themselves comprise advertisement data—e.g. having beenforwarded from terminal T1 in response to selection of an optionpresented to the user of terminal T1 as described above—are preferablynot modified by the server S1. Those MMS messages that comprise suchforwarded advertisements can have data in their header portionidentifying the MMS message as an advertisement-type message.Accordingly, to differentiate between MMS messages that should bemodified and messages that should not be modified the server S1 isarranged to initially review the headers of the received MMS message. Inthe event that one or more headers of the MMS message are identified torelate to advertisement data the message is not modified, but is insteadtransmitted directly to the network operator's MMSC 11.

If a message has been modified by the server S1 to include advertisementdata, the server S1 transmits the message to the network operator's MMSC11 for transmission to the recipient of the message (in accordance withconventional methods). In an alternative implementation, the data system1 can include a proxy MMSC (not shown), in which case the terminalsettings could be modified such that all messages are sent to the proxyMMSC in the first instance. The update engine 201 would then transmitthe message settings (presentation and advertisement) to the proxy MMSCinstead of to the server S1. In this variant the proxy MMSC wouldinclude the selecting and modifying functionality described above, andbe arranged to forward the modified messages to the operator's MMSC 11as described above.

A particularly convenient use for embodiments of the invention is inpublic venues such as festivals, shows and the like, since embodimentscan be used to distribute venue-specific information transparently tomobile terminals associated with attendees of the festival. Severalapplication servers such as server S1 could be located at various pointswithin the venue and the server S1 be arranged to transmit application,advertisement and content data wirelessly to the terminals. Preferablythe data are transmitted using Bluetooth, since this provides aconvenient and location dependent means of controlling content delivery.Each such server S1 could be arranged to access a database DB1, thecontent of which has preferably already been updated to storeadvertisement data relating to the sponsor of the event; in additionthird party servers, such as S2, S3, S4 could upload data to thedatabase DB1 and server S1 by sponsors of, and during, the event. Mobileterminals entering the vicinity of server(s) S1 could receiveapplication 10, wirelessly, together with data to be invoked anddisplayed by the application 10 and alert the user of the mobileterminal as to various products, services and demonstrations on offerwithin the venue. Other possible uses of embodiments of the inventioninclude airports, retail stores (in particular supermarkets), librariesand the like.

The above embodiments are to be understood as illustrative examples ofthe invention. It is to be understood that any feature described inrelation to any one embodiment may be used alone, or in combination withother features described, and may also be used in combination with oneor more features of any other of the embodiments, or any combination ofany other of the embodiments. Furthermore, equivalents and modificationsnot described above may also be employed without departing from thescope of the invention, which is defined in the accompanying claims.

1. A method of controlling operation of a mobile terminal, the mobileterminal comprising a processing system and a software component havinga plurality of operational statuses associated therewith, the methodcomprising the steps of: arranging the processing system in the mobileterminal to monitor the software component in the mobile terminal so asto identify a trigger for a change from a first, operational status inwhich the software component is operating and enabling a user of themobile terminal to interact therewith to a second, different,operational status in which the software component is operatingdifferently than when in the first operational status and also enablinga user of the mobile terminal to interact therewith; arranging theprocessing system to receive at least one advertisement and display theat least one received advertisement to the user of the mobile terminalwhen the software component is operating according to the firstoperational status during the user's interaction with the mobileterminal; responsive to identification of said trigger, arranging theprocessing system to issue a request message, the request messageincluding a request for user data associated with the mobile terminal;arranging the processing system to retrieve said user data and theprocessing system transmitting the user data to an authenticationsystem; arranging the processing system to receive an unlocking codefrom said authentication system and the processing system displaying anadvertisement and using the received unlocking code so as to change theoperational status of the software component from the first operationalstatus to the second, different, operational status; arranging theprocessing system to receive a visualization request from said softwarecomponent when said software component is operating according to thefirst operational status, the visualization request being for anadvertisement to be displayed during use of said software component whenoperating according to the first operational status; and arranging theprocessing system to cause said software component to operate accordingto the second, different, operational status without displaying areceived advertisement to the user of the mobile terminal during theuser's interaction with the mobile terminal.
 2. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising transmitting the retrieved user data to theauthentication system using the short messaging system.
 3. The methodaccording to claim 2, further comprising transmitting the softwarecomponent to the mobile terminal via a radio link.
 4. The methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising transmitting the softwarecomponent to the mobile terminal via a radio link.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising: requesting selection of datain accordance with the visualization request when said softwarecomponent is operating according to the first operational status; anddisplaying the selected data in a display area of the mobile terminal.6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising pausing saidsoftware component during display of the selected data.
 7. The methodaccording to claim 5, further comprising selecting data for display tothe user in response to said software component reaching a predeterminedexecution point when said software component is operating according tothe first operational status.
 8. The method according to claim 7,wherein said software component comprises a game having a plurality oflevels, further comprising detecting an end of a given level andselecting data for display to the user at the end of the given levelwhen said software component is operating according to the firstoperational status.
 9. The method according to claim 7, furthercomprising selecting data for display to the user of the terminal basedon demographic data relating to the user.
 10. The method according toclaim 7, further comprising selecting advertisement data for display tothe user of the terminal based on demographic data relating to the user.11. An apparatus for use in controlling operation of a mobile terminal,the apparatus being arranged to perform the method according to claim 1.12. A mobile terminal comprising a processing system and a radiointerface configured to receive data and software components over aradio link, the mobile terminal being adapted to receive and install asoftware component via the radio interface, said software componenthaving a plurality of operational statuses associated therewith, whereinthe processing system in the mobile terminal is arranged to monitoroperation of the software component in the mobile terminal so as toidentify a trigger for a change from a first, operational status inwhich said software component is operating and enabling a user of themobile terminal to interact therewith to a second, different,operational status in which said software component is operatingdifferently than when in the first operational status and also enablinga user of the mobile terminal to interact therewith, wherein theprocessing system is arranged to receive at least one advertisement anddisplay the at least one received advertisement to the user of themobile terminal when said software component is operating according tothe first operational status during the user's interaction with themobile terminal; wherein, responsive to identification of said trigger,the processing system is arranged to retrieve user data associated withthe user of the mobile terminal and to transmit the user data to anauthentication system and, responsive to data indicative of an unlockingcode, the processing system displaying an advertisement and saidsoftware component is arranged to co-operate with the received unlockingcode so as to change the operational status of said software componentfrom the first operational status to the second, different, operationalstatus; wherein the processing system is arranged to receive avisualization request from said software component when said softwarecomponent is operating according to the first operational status, thevisualization request being for an advertisement to be displayed duringuse of said software component when operating according to the firstoperational status; and wherein the processing system is arranged tocause said software component to operate according to the second,different, operational status without displaying a receivedadvertisement to the user of the mobile terminal during the user'sinteraction with the mobile terminal.
 13. The mobile terminal accordingto claim 12, wherein the mobile terminal is arranged to transmit theretrieved user data to the authentication system using the shortmessaging system via the radio interface.
 14. A method of controllingoperation of a mobile terminal, the mobile terminal comprising aprocessing system and a trial version of a game comprising an executableportion that, during use of the trial version of the game, is locked,the method comprising the steps of: arranging the processing system tomonitor use of the trial version of the game at the mobile terminal toidentify a need for an unlocking code arising from user input to themobile terminal and which is indicative of the user's desire to obtain astandard version of the game that is different than the trial version ofthe game; arranging the processing system to display at least oneadvertisement to the user of the mobile terminal during use of the trialversion of the game at the mobile terminal; responsive to identifyingsaid need for the unlocking code arising from user input, arranging theprocessing system to issue a request message, the request messageincluding a request for user data associated with the mobile terminal;arranging the processing system to retrieve said user data and totransmit the user data to an authentication system; arranging theprocessing system to receive an unlocking code from said authenticationsystem as a result of the user input to the mobile terminal; arrangingthe processing system to display an advertisement and use the receivedunlocking code to unlock the executable portion of the game so as toallow a user of the game full access to the executable portion of thegame which is the standard version of the game; and then arranging theprocessing system to allow the user to use the standard version of thegame without display of advertisements.